Systems Engineer - Level II (Linux Engineer)

Key Tasks & Responsibilities

Linux Systems Administration & Troubleshooting

Manage, maintain, and troubleshoot Linux servers deployed in AWS across a mixed distribution environment, including Amazon Linux 2023, Ubuntu 22.04 and later, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9 .

Diagnose and resolve complex operating system, networking, storage, and performance issues across the server fleet.

Make performance-based recommendations for server configuration changes to optimize workloads, cost, and reliability.

Virtual Desktop Support

Support and maintain Linux-based virtual desktop environments running on VMware and AWS WorkSpaces .

Partner with end users and application teams to ensure a stable, secure, and productive virtual desktop experience.

Security Baselines & Hardening

Develop, deploy, and maintain Linux operating system baselines aligned with Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks .

Collaborate with application owners to customize security baselines as needed to enable application functionality without compromising the organization's security posture.

Configuration Management & Automation

Perform enterprise-wide configuration management using Ansible .

Author, maintain, and version-control Ansible playbooks used to define system baselines, configurations, and repeatable operational tasks.

Application Support & Collaboration

Work directly with application owners, developers, and analytics engineers to deploy, upgrade, migrate, and maintain applications running on Linux.

Serve as a trusted infrastructure partner during application lifecycle events, providing guidance on Linux best practices.

Monitoring & Uptime

Develop and maintain monitoring solutions for servers across the enterprise to ensure maximum system uptime and rapid incident detection.

Continuously improve alerting, dashboards, and observability to reduce downtime.

Patching & Vulnerability Remediation

Oversee regular and ad-hoc system patching efforts to ensure timely vulnerability remediation in accordance with organizational SLAs.

Monitor and enforce patching requirements using AWS Systems Manager .

Cloud Infrastructure & Infrastructure-as-Code

Deploy and manage infrastructure using AWS CloudFormation and AWS Service Catalog .

Contribute to and maintain reusable, standardized infrastructure templates that streamline provisioning and enforce compliance.

Education & Experience

Required

3 or more years of hands-on experience managing Linux systems in a production environment.

2 or more years of experience performing configuration management using Ansible , including authoring and maintaining playbooks and roles.

2 or more years of experience supporting Linux virtual desktops .

Demonstrated experience working in a large government, financial, regulatory, or corporate environment , where formal change management, security compliance, and audit requirements are standard.

Preferred

Bachelor's degree or higher

Experience supporting analytics infrastructure , such as Hadoop clusters, AWS EMR , HPC grid clusters using SLURM, AWS Parallel Cluster , or other distributed computing platforms.

Experience administering VMware virtual desktops or AWS WorkSpaces at scale.

Proficiency with Python for automation, scripting, and tooling development.

Certifications

Preferred

Red Hat certifications

Amazon Web Services (AWS) certifications

Security Clearance

Public Trust High (Tier 4/BI) Risk Level

Must be a US citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident

Other (Travel, Work Environment, DoD 8570 Requirements, Administrative Notes, etc.)

D.C or Remote